Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	heart_n	speak_v	word_n	18,801	5	4.3019	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66519	The building, beautifying, or repairing of Churches, an act of religion A sermon preached in the parish church of St. Helens, London, on Sunday, August 8. 1697. At the first opening of that Church after it had been repair'd. By Tho. Willis, M.A. vicar of St. Helens.	Willis, Thomas, 1651 or 2-1701.	1692 (1692)	Wing W2857; ESTC R219576	8,966	35

good men under the Law This I shall endeavour to clear and prove 1. By the Nature and Reason of the thing 2dly By its agreeableness to the Nature and Reason of man and 3dly By the Approbation and Acceptance of God First then I say to have a Stately Beautiful and well adorned House or Church call it which you will to the Honour of God for a Renown and Glory amongst men appears to be a proper Act of Religion by the Nature and Reason of the thing What is Religion but the right Worship of the only true God It is a giving him the Honour due to his great name by an acknowledgment of his infinite Excellencies And this acknowledgment must be open and visible as it were to the Eyes of the World by some eternal Temstimonies and Actions Thus in Levit. 10.3 we read that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified Now this must either be done by words as in Prayers or Praises or by some certain actions and gestures And indeed by the self-same Actions by which we pay our Respects and give Honour to men we must testifie our acknowledgments of the Divine Excellencies to the Honour of God as particularly by uncovering the Head and bowing the Knee Now how can a Subject be supposed more to honour his Prince and Soveraign than by erecting a magnificent Pallace or repairing and beautifying a decayed stately structure to his Honour And thus may a man honour the great King of Kings whose Subject he is the most high God I mean by either building beautifying or repairing a Temple or Pallace as David calls it 1 Cron. 29.1 when he says the Pallace is not for man but for the Lord God to the Glory and Honour of his great Name By such acts as these a man makes a visible and practical acknowledgment of the Majesty Greatness and Royal dignity of God He that acknowledges the divine Excellencies in words such as Praises are truly honours God according to that of the Psalmist Psal 50.23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me but he that doth such Works as these by doing so may be said to honour God much more than the other who only chants forth his Praises A stately and well adorned Palace is for the honour of the King and a beautiful Temple as that of Solomons formerly was is for the honour of Almighty God Praises we know are but cheap acknowledgments but he that repairs an old decay'd Temple to God such as we all know this lately was cannot be said to honour him with that which costs him nothing The Pious man by his Praises acknowledges God to be a good God but he that does this latter acknowledges him to be a great King And thus I have shewed you how to have a stately magnificent and well adorned House wherein to serve God and to attend upon all the ordinances of his Worship is an act of natural rational and real Religion from the nature and reason of the thing I proceed now then to prove it to be so 2dly By its agreeableness to the Nature and Reason of man Now this plainly appears in that in all Nations of the World they who have apprehended an adorable Divinity have built a magnificent Temple to the honour of the God or Goddess whom they have adored and from time to time have adorned and beautified such Temples thus built with the choicest and richest of their Treasures Such was the Temple of Jupiter in a certain City of Mysia Cizicus the Pillars of which were four Cubits thick and in height fifty The whole was of polished stone and each stone was joined to the other with no meaner a cement than a line of Gold But that which Queen Semiramis erected to the same supposed God in Babilou was far more sumptuous and costly and richly beautified and adorned with Gold and Silver The Temple of Diana was twenty years in building and above one hundred and fifty in adorning The temple of Peace in Rome was built by Vespasian three hundred Foot in length and in breadth two hundred and all the rarieties of the golden House of Nero were bestowed as Ornaments for this Temple Now though these Persons who built such stately Fabricks and so richly adorned them to the honour of their supposed Divinities grossly erred in the object of their Worship yet by this it is apparent that it is agreeable to the dictate of Nature and consonant to the reason of Man to have a Magnificent and Beautiful House or Temple to the Divinity we adore as an expression of that Honour which is due from us to God It is not consistent with the high and honourable thoughts which men ought to have of God to be content to attend the solemnities of his Holy Service in a mean and sordid House He is not worthy of the honourable Title of God Almighty's Servant who hath less regard to that House which is dedicated to his Service and Honour than he hath to that of his own Dwelling and Abode and can willingly lay out his Wealth for the furnishing and adorning the latter and be well satisfied though the former lies in a desolate and ruinous condition The Nature of Man cannot in the most corrupted state but be so ingenuous as to dictate this Truth that that Being who gives the best most certainly does deserve the best So that if God gives the best Blessings to us he deserves the best returns from us What matter is it if we offer our earthly Treasures to him from whom we expect Grace here and everlasting Glory when we go hence It is true God is not taken with any shining or beautiful Adornments as men are but yet it is very meet and fitting that by such things as these we should testifie our high esteem of him and great Love to him That man who hath a due apprehension of the Greatness and Majesty of God and of his mercy and goodness to man will think no cost too great or Ornament at any time too rich for that House which is set apart for the Honour of his Name That this is not a stranger or screed Conception but the natural thought and sentiment of Mankind is further apparent in that the famous Temple of Solomon formerly was built according to the dictates of Natural Reason in King David for it was in the mind of that Pious Prince to do this before the will of God concerning it was declared and made known For it is said 1 Kings 8.17 that it was in the heart of David to build a House for the name of the Lord God of Israel And yet if you turn to 2 Sam. 7.7 You find that in time past God never had spoke a word to any of the Iribes of Israel saying why build ye me not a House of Caedar So that the first contrivance of this was the natural product of that holy man 's own